The water still clung to my skin when the scream tore through the air the second time.

For a heartbeat, none of us moved. We froze, the illusion of paradise shattered in an instant. A silence heavier than stone pressed down on us as Raul, Diana, and I turned to one another, wide-eyed, as if searching each other’s faces for confirmation.

Had we imagined it?

This place was supposed to be hidden, untouched, a zone where no one should have been lurking. But the scream came again, rawer, guttural—someone being mauled alive.

A shiver shot up my spine. My chest squeezed tight. Before I realized I was speaking, I was...